Worthy Websites

Civil Eats
Paula Crossfield and her associates provide smart, literate new perspectives on all things connected to sustainable food.

Nourish Network
Lia Huber’s slick new site provides nourishment for body, mind, and soul. Packed with recipies, articles, videos, social networking opportunities–and even an opportunity to win a free trip to Napa!

OnEarth
Bob Deans, Scott Dodd, Wendy Gordon, David Gessner, Ben Jervey, Paige Smith Orloff, Elizabeth Royte and others deliver some of the best environmental writing to be found in one site–and I’m not talking about the posts I regularly contribute.

That faint, “We told you so” ringing in your ears might be coming from the folks at the Cornucopia Institute, the Wisconsin-based watchdog group that has being complaining for years that the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) enforcement of federal organic laws was, to put it kindly, pathetic, clearly favoring industrial operations who bent (or broke) every rule they could to out-compete small, conscientious farmers who hewed to the letter and spirit of organic policy.

Guess what. Cornucopia and other organic consumer advocates were right. This week the USDA’s own Office of Inspector General came out with a formal report on the UDSA’s monitoring of its organic program during the Clinton and Bush II years. It couldn’t have been more scathing.

The inspector cited 14 areas of major concern, including:

●California inspectors are simply not equipped to enforce the organic laws. Bad news for all of us. With 2,000 “organic” farms exporting to every corner of the nation, that state tills the most organic acreage in the country.

●In five cases where companies were known to be selling inorganic food illegally under the USDA Organic label, the USDA completely failed to take action on one. The four others took as long as 32 months to resolve, during which time the firms continued to sell mislabeled produce.

●Since 1990, organic laws have called for periodic residue testing. None of the regulating agencies the inspector investigated had done any residue testing. The reason? Too expensive.

●Of 41 complaints filed since 2004, no less than 19 cases were not only unresolved by 2009, but regulators had no idea of their status.

●The USDA complexly failed to do the required onsite reviews of at least one foreign certifying agent.

“Spotty enforcement of organic rules since 2002 has enabled a number of giant factory farms, engaged in suspicious practices, to place ethical family farms at a competitive disadvantage, particularly inorganic dairy, beef, and egg production,” said Cornucopia’s Will Fantle.

New appointees to regulatory oversight roles at the USDA embraced the inspector’s recommendations and say they will implement the necessary changes.

1 comment

I’m a working dairy farmer, average guy, try to do the best that I can with my cows. I have several neighbors who are certified organic. They cheat in every way possible. They are inspected once a year and the inspector takes their word for it that they are organic. They use antibiotics routinely and keep the cow (they are supposed to sell the cow who was treated even once). They mix regular grain in with the organic grain. Some of them leave Mexicans doing the work while they pursue other investments. How is this fair to the consumer who pays more for the milk and to those of us who just try to take care of our cows and don’t lie that we are organic?